


14 lives

by acidicqueen



Category: Badboyhalo, Minecraft (Video Game), Skeppy, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Androids, Future Fic, M/M, Minor Swearing, Slow Burn, Temporary Character Death, and higher stakes, basically mc monday but like vr, exposition via annoying reporter dude but hes great, hohoohhooho yes, i have no idea how formatting works on here, its set pretty far in the future, its survival games so violence, no graphic descriptions or gore, the ships platonic, youtubers are now newtubers because im very original
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-01-02 21:53:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21168461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acidicqueen/pseuds/acidicqueen
Summary: Just another Minecraft tournament...unless it's in untested VR technology. Throw in a weird android, time shenanigans, and lots of people we know and love, and you have this. Focused on diamond boi and bald man, others will be present throughout the story. Characters will not be romantically shipped. :)





	1. begin//

**Author's Note:**

> pls note! dont share this fic with any of the people mentioned in it please and thank u  
also harassment of people about fictional ships is bad dont do it  
this has been my psa now enjoy my first actual post u heathens  


//Cybergy is holding a Minecraft Tournament in UNRELEASED VR TECH! 

Cybergy Studios started out as a small business owned by three friends.  
They started out making modifications to the VR technology they had at the time, adding sensory enhancements and improved  
interactivity when you were in a given simulation. They gained some traction from selling modified headgear, but the head creator  
of Cybergy, Noris Rynn, was not satisfied. They kept pushing for further  
modifications, adding a play-while-you-sleep function that required little to no movement.

The VR Ultra Pearl Version absolutely exploded after release, with Cybergy absolutely catapulting  
their way to the top seller in the virtual reality industry for 5 years straight. Since the success of Ultra  
Pearl, Cybergy has released several other VR technologies, including the award winning  
Ultra Diamond headset and controllers and body suits with maximized sensory modifications and many more. 

Now, Cybergy has just released their newest project - full and complete immersion technology.  
The company head themself has announced they will be holding a minigame/survival games tournament in  
their tested prototype before release within the Minecraft VR experience. Rynn has also announced that Cybergy will be inviting the most famous Minecrafters and some non-Minecraft NewTubers to take  
part in this tournament with a prize pool of 100,000 New American Dollars (NAD). 

Cybergy has yet to release a finalized list of competitors, but it's rumored several huge Minecraft names like CaptainSparklez, BajanCanadian, and DanTDM will be participating in this event. Stay tuned  
Synthians! I’ll give you guys an update soon!

\--For more information on the Minecraft Tournament of the century, subscribe to our newsletter MinecraftingToTheMax, and receive notifications whenever we post an update!--  
//Posted [July 7, 2117] by Max Synth

\--------------------------------------------  
from: CybergyEvents@Cybergy.com  
subject: You have been invited to...  
\--------------------------------------------  
Dear Newtuber of the Future!  
You have been invited to participate in the biggest event in Cybergy™ history: The Grand-Day Minecraft Tournament to test Cybergy's latest technological breakthrough! The event will be held in Cybergy's main office of VR immersion, allowing your body to relax and be cared for by trained professionals in the real world while your mind explores the world of Minecraft in point based tournament fashion!  
All invitees who call the tournament hotline number (XXX-XXX-XXXX) should fill out the travel guide form. Cybergy will automatically compensate all attendees for travel funds, hotel stay, and food, so don't worry if you don't live in Calington, New America or can't afford the trip!  
We look forward to hearing your response!  
Signed,  
The Cybergy Team  
\--------------------------------------------

Zak blinked once, then again. This...this isn't real, right? Yeah, this is totally a scam. There's no way he, a NewTuber with a mere following of one million, would be invited to The biggest event in e-sports  
and virtual reality ever, right? Obviously a scam, even if his mailbox didn't filter it out of his normal inbox. He would probably get his number put on a call list if he -

His email disappeared off the screen and his phone started vibrating. Bad was calling. What kind of timing is this?? As soon as he put his phone to his ear an explosion of sound met his ear. 

"SKEPPY!!!!!! I just read my emails!!! You'll never believe what I just got!!!"

Zak jumped out of his chair from the absolute noise, damn was his friend loud if he wanted to be.

"Ow, geez dude What are you yelling about??"

He had an idea, but there's no way it would be what he was thinking it was, not when BadBoyHalo has a third of the following Skeppy does. Maybe the scam was targeting smaller NewTubers, ones that  
were famous but not famous enough for it to cause a fuss when they were dragged in.

"I just got an email from Cybergy. THE Cybergy!!! The official email of Cybergy!!! They want ME to be in the tournament!!!! Have you checked your email Skeppy? What if they invited you too??"

"Dude, are you sure that it isn't a scam? I got one too, it seems really sketch. Doubt we actually are invited."

His friend on the other side paused for a moment, and actually seemed to think about something for once.

"There was a number on it thought! I'm going to call it and see if it is actually Cybergy or not. Join Teamspeak with me, we can see if its a scam right now."

Zak sighed. He's just not getting it, is he? It's obviously a scam, though... Whatever.

"Aight, see you in TS Bad." 

Zak hung up the phone, got up from where he was lying and sat at his desk. Logging on his desktop, he connected to the voice chat. As soon as he did Bad started talking. Seems like he's really excited  
about this...

"Hey Skeppy, are you there? Okay, you connected, cool. I'm pulling out my headphones so you can listen while I prove you wrong, you muffin!"

"Whatever dude." 

Let’s troll so it’s not a total waste of time and I get more content for my channel... Yes, a genius plan! 

Zak cackled to himself with mic muted and opened his recording software. What a great video this would make: "WE TROLLED CYBERGY SCAMMERS!! RESPONDING TO FAKE EMAIL!"

"Hold on, did you say something? My volume was all the way down when i unplugged my headphones."

"Nah, don't worry about it. Bad hurry up and call them alreadyyyyyyy-"

"Okay, okay, give me a moment. I gotta bring up the email on my computer again."

Zak heard beeping noises in the background, and then the standard dialing tone. This is going to be so fun-  
He looked back and checked just to make sure he was recording - he was. Zak can always do the intro later after the call. Even out of the blue, content was content after all. Maybe he could take a break  
from recording videos this weekend.

"Someone picked up!"

An excited whisper came from Zak's headphones. Ohohohoh, this is it! 

"Hello entrant for the Grand-Day Minecraft Tournament of 2117! Please confirm your identity by telling me what channel name you would like to register for the tournament."

A robotic-sounding voice came from the other side of the Teamspeak call. Zak decided he would keep quiet for now, opting to message his friend if he wanted to say something.

"Oh, hello! My channel's name is BadBoyHalo. Is there anything else-"

"Entrant confirmed. Voice match confirm for entrant BadBoyHalo."

The android cut him off harshly. Zak himself had no idea why Bad would try to be nice to one of these things. They collect data. That's all they're good for.

"Thank you for your entry. Your entry confirmation has been added to the list. It is publicly available on the Cybergy Events website at the link here. If you have any issues viewing this link, contact  
Cybergy's Help Forum at the public Cybergy website. Cybergy looks forward to seeing you at the Grand-Day Minecraft Tournament of 2117 next week on the 14th of July."  
A click, and the android hung up. There was a moment of silence in the call, and then Bad spoke.

"Well. Androids were never really polite anyway, but that was still kind of rude to cut -"

"Man that was boringggggg. I didn't even get a chance to try and troll the android. So sadddd."

"You were going to try to troll the entry person?? What if they didn't let me enter the tournament, Skeppy??? What would you have done then??"

Oh, whoops. Forgot he didn't actually tell Bad he was going to record this for a video. Quick, need to change the subject.

"Well that was dumb. I didn't think a scam would use an android for their message retrieval. Must be a pretty big scam company if they have the money for an android. Now they have your information, 

Bad!!! Why would you actually give them your channel name??"

"Wh- Skeppy it wasn't a scam? The link they gave me went to the actual Cybergy event page. Here, I'll send it to you. My username is on there and everything you muffin! Oh my goodness my username is  
actually on the page. WHAT."

Zak clicked on the link his friend sent him and lo and behold: Cybergy Events is hosting a tournament of NewTubers in their latest breakthrough of VR technology!

Oh.

The website was real.  
It was actually the Cybergy page for events.  
And on the list of confirmed entries...

"Oh my g- What? It- it actually wasn't- HAHAHhAHHAHAHAAH IT WAS REAL!?!?!? WHAT???"

Zak's mind was actually blank right then and there. Literally mind blown from this revelation, he sat in his gaming chair and just stared at his screen. No one said anything in the Teamspeak channel for a  
couple of seconds, until Bad spoke up excitedly.

"Skeppy, do you know what this means???? We're going to be in the tournament!!!! Oh my goodness we're going to be in the tournament!!! Do you think we get teammates? Skeppy, be my teammate! Call  
the number!!"

"...I will."


	2. prepare//

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy halloween! this chapter was very dumb and i hate it. s/o to my editor tho for being very helpful and helping it to become way better than it was before he looked at it thank u editor very cool  
this chapter is cursed

//NewTube: The New Generation Of Videos and How It Works  
With the Silver Age of technology upon us, the difference of the internet of today from several hundred years ago is staggering. The dissolving of free internet in 2018 would be the first step in creating a bigger, better internet for the whole of us. Even though many people were against companies being able to control the speed of the internet, these companies such as AT&T and Google had the resources to research into bigger and better alternatives for the comparatively slow load time of back then.

AT&T has since merged several smaller companies into itself to form ATech, the current corporation that regulates free internet usage. A few years after this, Google decided in 2109 to absorb all video streaming websites into NewTube, which replaced their old video creating service YouTube, and added many more features and opportunities for creators new to the platform. Google has also founded the College of NewTube for those who wish to be serious about creating content for the platform, and rewarding scholarship money based on subscriber counts before the merge.

With new opportunities comes new restrictions, of course. Not just anyone has the moxy to be a content creator on the Free Internet! Any NewTubers must abide by the Community Restrictions, and upon hitting 100,000 subscribers must apply for a NewTube permit to continue making content on the site. As usual of course, any machine-person or android is banned from creating content on NewTube, following Google’s regulation of mechanical creation.

Recently though, NewTube has teased some changes to that "no robots" rule! Maybe we'll see some cute android videos next to the classic cat videos?

For more information on NewTube and other news updates, subscribe to our newsletter NewsmakingToTheMax, and receive notifications whenever we post an update!  
Posted [June 19, 2117] by Max Synth

It had started raining by the time Zak had finished his own call with the Cybergy android. Everything was pretty much the same, the android bearing no time for gentle conversation. When it hung up he couldn't have been happier to be done with it. Damn things would take over someday. At least they couldn't take his job from him.  
The rain outside did little to calm him down, and Zak resigned himself to browsing social media. Since everything absorbed itself into Cybergy, it was extremely easy to find content to distract oneself from boring, everyday responsibilities. Zak always enjoyed looking at the art and memes his fans made for him and his friends. Even if some of it was....questionable at best.

“Why does it all have to be ship art??? Where my memes at?”

He was fine with...that...but still. It was kind of annoying when every two posts were someone kissing somebody else. They’re real people, guys, c’mon. 

After a bit of browsing, the urge to eat could not be resisted any longer. Zak looked at the time. Was it really that late? Then again, waking up at noon screws with your perception of time.  
A glimpse into his fridge and an annoying conversation with his Aleira later, Zak found himself in the rain on his way to the regular 8/11. The rain reflected the street lights, and puddles had already gathered on the sidewalks. Fortunately, it wasn’t raining too hard, and the hoodie he had on protected Zak from most of the rain. He had to walk in the middle of the sidewalk to avoid the large puddles and several homeless people hiding under the awnings of closed businesses. When it started raining harder, the hood did little to keep rain off him, and he was pretty soaked when he got to 8/11.  
On the way out, he overheard a group of teenage girls discussing the tournament in the corner of the convenience store.

“I wonder who all is going to be in it?!”

"Max hasn't posted anything yet, I need the final list!"

“I hope Skeppy and BBH are in, they make such a good team if you know what I mean, hehe!!”

"Would they have enough subscribers…?"

Only slightly disturbed, Zak arrived back at his apartment and sat at his desk with the food he’d gotten. But as soon as he’d started eating, his phone vibrated on the desk. On the screen he had several messages from A6D. 

\--------------------------------------------  
A6D: bruh

A6D: i got this weird email

A6D: bbh says its for some american thing

A6D: hes telling me to call the number???

A6D: i called it 

A6D: im in some event thing now??????????????

A6D: bbh explained it

A6D: america time

A6D: did u literally die or something

A6D: i saw u online 10 mins ago answer 

skeppy: bro WHAT

A6D: FINALLY 

A6D: also yeah i get to go to america now again

A6D: can u believe they fixed my visa 2

skeppy: huh?!?!??!?!?1?!?  
\--------------------------------------------

How did they all somehow manage to get into this thing? Like, it’s hosted by the biggest VR company right now, with testing for complete virtual immersion? Is this allowed???  
“How did this even happen?”  
A bit later…  
\--------------------------------------------  
Technopig: skeppy you get any weird emails recently?

Technopig: like from a vr company

Technopig: is this a scam or 

Technopig: it's gotta be a scam 

skeppy: dude you too??????

skeppy: wtf that's 4 of us now

skeppy: call the number on it trust me

Technopig: im not sure if i should trust you specifically

Technopig: but if that’s 4 of us, who else got it?

skeppy: bad and a6d got it

skeppy: u can see us on the website now 

skeppy sent a link!

Technopig: ...ok but I swear if my number gets put on a call list

skeppy: why dont u trust me :(((  
\--------------------------------------------

\--------------------------------------------  
skeppy: YO DUDES GUESS WH AT

skeppy: IM SO AWESOME CYBERDYGY INVIITTTED ME TO TWCHHHHEIR THING

skeppy: HOYLDBDUKSF

MegaPvp: wtf

tehneon: oh lord what's he on this time

Zelk: dudes he ain't joking

Zelk sent a link!

Zelk: look at this

skeppy: think of all the clOuT 

MegaPvp: no 

MegaPvp: i refuse to believe this idiot is in that tournament

tehneon: is that cybergy's website?

Zelk: yeh

skeppy: GET FLEXED ON LOSERS HAHAHAHA

tehneon: lmao  
\--------------------------------------------

\--------------------------------------------  
BadBoyHalo: eeeeeeeee I’m so excited guys!!!!!! :DDD

BadBoyHalo: We're going to have so much fun in VR!!!! :DDDD

Dream: ?

skeppy: dude u didn't know?

A6d: lol no one told him

skeppy: bruh

skeppy: u were supposed to tell him

A6d: no u

Dream: What have u guys done…….

Dream: And without me too how could u

BadBoyHalo: Sorry Dream :((( we got invited to the Cybergy tournament!!!!! :D

Dream: wHAT

Dream: dUDE

Dream: You didn’t tell me THAT??????

Dream: wow ok i see how it is 

A6d: skeppy was supposed to tell you

skeppy: news to me

skeppy: ok ill tell him now

skeppy: we’re gonna win 100,000 bOI

Dream: Why are you like this  
\--------------------------------------------

Later that night, Zak was recording a video on his own when a thought occurred to him; the implications of a televised event. Everyone tuning in would see their faces…

Someone he knows wouldn’t like that. 

Someone he knows is also massively dumb and probably hasn’t realised that he’s going to have to show his face on TV.

So he decided to see if Bad was online.

\--------------------------------------------  
skeppy: baaAAAAD

BadBoyHalo: Waht

skeppy: so uhhhh

skeppy: first off y r u awake 

skeppy: secnd u realise ur gonna hafta show ur face on tv right

BadBoyHalo: ...oh no

skeppy:

skeppy: this is national and u forgot ur going on tv

BadBoyHalo: maybe…

skeppy: u gonna be ok dude?

BadBoyHalo: I think so

BadBoyHalo: ...

BadBoyHalo: is it really gonna be on tv?

skeppy: r u srs

BadBoyHalo: i can’t do that

skeppy: ts now

BadBoyHalo: ???  
\--------------------------------------------  
User has joined your channel.

“Heyyyyy”

“What do you want, Skeppy, it’s late.”

“Even for you?”

“Yeah, 4 am is pretty much my limit…”

Okay Zak, time to break out those pep talk skills of yours. What can he say to convince Bad to not give up on the tournament?

“So, the television thing…”

“...yeah?”

“You shouldn’t be worried about it!”

“And you couldn’t have just texted me this?”

Oh, uh...right. He could have, but...

“Uh… nope! It’s more sincere if I say it out loud!”

There was a bit of a silence, like he didn’t exactly believe what Zak was saying. Zak didn’t believe himself either.

“If you say so.”

“I think you shouldn’t feel that nervous! You’ll be fine on television! It’s not that much different from a stream, right? So don’t worry too much about it!”

“Not that much different from a stream? But there’s going to be so many people seeing my face… Skeppy, do you think it's too late for me to cancel??”

“NO!! Don’t cancel, it’ll be fine, okay? Just-”

“Wait, I can wear a hoodie and cover my face! It’ll be fine then!”

Yes- wait. No, wrong logic, that’s not going to help in the long run at all... 

“Your fans will be disappointed though, Bad. You know people like it when you show your face on streams!”

“No, they don’t Skeppy… Did you watch those streams? Most of them complained or said mean things. It’s okay, I’ll just-”

“Bad. You- your real fans think you’re cute, okay? Ignore the people who think otherwise, they’re just there to hate on people for no reason. You shouldn’t be afraid to show your face, dude.”

“...”

“Bad?”

“Okay. I’ll try...something. I won’t cancel.”

“Whew… good. Thank you, Bad!!!”

“Why are you thanking me, muffin?”

“If you left, I wouldn’t have a teammate!”

“Oh yeah…”

He decided to end it there. It was kind of late, and Zak accomplished his goal of preparing Bad for the camera. At least, what he thought preparation for the camera was.

“Okay, that’s all, good niiiiiiiiiight~”

“Good night, Skeppy…”


	3. assemble//

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahahahaa about that weekly upload thing,,,,,,,turns out writing is harder than i thought! once i get past the dumb beginning chapters hopefully itll be easier but for now ill try once every 2 weeks for some consistency, but ill try to upload on thursdays still!

//Androids: How Far is Too Far?

Since the invention of the domestic model by ATech in 2067, Androids have been assimilated into our everyday lives.  
Lifeless, rude, and devoid of all emotion, one wonders why ATech didn't make our androids nicer?

To answer that, we have to go back to 2040. If you've paid attention in your general history courses, you'll remember 2040 is when the Massacre of Witcher Square happened.  
The head researcher of ATech's Android Emotion Research, Inma Thurston, led an army of androids who broke against their programming to Witcher Square,  
and murdered everyone within the plaza, proclaiming "Death to all our slavers." With this, all research on android emotions were stopped,  
and all of Thurston's research was deleted from the database completely.

However, there's been rumors of a secret project going on inside ATech headquarters - rumors of a new model of android that  
replicates human emotion and appearance, perfectly imitating an actual human… 

Was Thurston's research saved from deletion, or is someone entirely new creating these androids from scratch? Whatever the case,  
make sure to subscribe to my newsletter to get news as soon as it releases!!! vvvv

For more information on Androids, subscribe to our newsletter TechnologyToTheMax, and receive notifications whenever we post an update!  
Posted [July 13, 2117] by Max Synth

Complete List of Tournament Attendees  
Team 1: -------------- Team 7: --------------  
Team 2: -------------- Team 8: --------------  
Team 3: -------------- Team 9: --------------  
Team 4: -------------- Team 10:--------------  
Team 5: -------------- Team 11: --------------  
Team 6: -------------- Team 12:--------------  
pg 1/4

The day of the plane flight to Calington finally arrived, and Zak was nervous. Sitting in an uncomfortable airport seat didn't help much. He’d seen the list of all the confirmed NewTuber attendees on Social Media last night after he posted his most recent video. Almost all of them were NTers, Minecrafters he knew from when he still attended school. He could probably remember at least one series each of them did, and even the ones he didn’t watch back then he’d seen floating around now. 

There was an insane amount of people at 48, all well-known some way or another, likely. Besides the lottery winners, of course, but no one cares about them. Some on the list, he didn’t recognize at all though. xQc and m0xy must have been some of the non-Minecrafters attending, and a lot of the real-name-usernames he didn't know.

To be completely honest, the majority of these people probably had hundreds of thousands, even millions of subscribers on him. It was hard to not be intimidated by the OGs that've been around since he learned to turn on his parents' tablet. Even thinking about playing with someone as big someone like CaptainSparklez was enough to make anyone nervous, right? At least a few of them were from smaller sections of NewTube. At least a few of these guys were from the one SMP server. He wondered what the invitation process was like.

“Flight 7392-D to Calington will take off from gate 4 in 5 minutes.”

There it is! Zak stands to make his way to one of the biggest events in Minecraft and VR history. Now it’s time to face everything possibly crumbling down on him and killing his channel popularity or making his way to the top charts in NewTube video gaming!

\------  
skeppy: plane time guys im heading to technos so i can finally beat him at irl skywars  
\------

The plan was for everyone to meet up with Techno, the one that actually lived in and could navigate Calington. And he was late. All of them were. Except Zak, who was sitting at a table inside the cafe they were to meet at and literally none of his friends have texted the group chat saying where they were. It’s been 20 minutes guys, cmon.

The cafe itself (chosen specifically by Techno) was a cozy hole-in-the-wall, populated mostly by those with a senior citizen discount and college kids buried in homework. With brick walls and wooden floors, it gave a nice historical vibe for the old times, before everything was modernized and simplified. Plus, the wait staff were actually human, instead of the basic food service android that was everywhere else. It was a wonder the place was still in business. The tea was pretty good though. 

With the tea came a muffin, of course. When he saw it on the menu he had to order one. He WAS going to save it for Bad, but he wasn’t here yet, and it was looking pretty tasty… Then it started moving - no, wait, that’s his phone vibrating. 

\--------------------------------------------  
Technopig: skep what did u look like again

Technopig: im here but theres no diamonds

skeppy: bruh

skeppy: such a fake fan smh

skeppy: doesnt even watch my livestreams

Technopig: i cant help it man im too busy gettin this degree

Technopig: trying to upkeep a channel and that takes all my time

skeppy: u dropped out shut up

skeppy: im wearing my merch do u at least remember what that looks like

Technopig: ohhhhhh i see you now thanks man

skeppy: bruh  
\--------------------------------------------

When he looked up from his phone, a tall dude in a white shirt was waving at him from the entrance of the cafe. Zak waved back, and Techno made his way over to the corner table.

“Yoooooo it’s Skeppy in the flesh. Oh you're shorter than I thought you were. Neat.”

"1v1 me skywars right now idiot."

Zak tried his best to look like he was mad at him, and Techno laughed. This is going to be so much fun. 

Talking with Techno went pretty normal, after the initial greeting. It felt kinda weird though, talking to this guy in real life and not just in a voice call. Still, it was really fun to be able to share memes irl and just really talk about anything. Techno really wasn’t all that different. It was almost hard to believe such a normal-looking guy was actually a huge nerd. 

Around fifteen minutes passed before the other two members of their party showed up. The moment our beloved Frenchman walks in the door…

“A6D!!! GUYS, over here!!!! Where were you at!?”

Zak hurriedly stood up and started waving towards the entrance of the cafe excitedly. Behind A6D comes in a man with a black hoodie covering his face, both panting heavily as they ran into the cafe.

"A6d, what's the big deal?? Why did you run off like that? They were just fans…"

"Are you kidding me? One of them threw a fuckign baguette at me, of course I’m gonna run away from-"

The other members of the trio barely had time to rest before they were attacked by a very excited Zak and pulled into a hug.

“BAD!!! A6D!!! It’s so good to see you guys!!!”

They probably got a few weird stares for the commotion, but who cares! His friends are here!

Eventually everyone settled back in the corner with Techno, who was still sitting there awkwardly.

“So...uhh...you guys come here often?"


	4. approach//

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahahaha finally almost there almost at the meat of this story i am so hAPPY to be done with these first chapters-the next ones should be easier to write and better i hope//thanks for sticking with me for it! i cant wait to keep going with this story :)

//CYBERGY TOURNAMENT FOR 100,000 NAD BEGINS TODAY!

Today is the day my fellow Synthians!!! The Grand-Day Minecraft Tournament hosted by Cybergy themselves is taking place today in an undisclosed location to the public!  
(Sorry Synthians, Max can't reveal it due to legal reasons, no matter how much he tries to bribe the assistant).  
In any case, the full list for tournament competitors has finally been confirmed. Made up of 24 teams and 48 total participants,  
the list can be found on Cybergy’s official tournament website! (link found on the front page of my blog)

Some of the participants were quite unexpected! I'm sure no one expected someone like Ninja of the Fortnight™ community to join a  
MINECRAFT tournament! Very interesting stuff! I'm quite excited for how some of these teams will play together!!  
I want to see how the smaller NTers compare to our OGs of the Minecraft community. 

Who will you be cheering for, Synthians? My personal pick is has got to be Skeppy or CaptainSparklez' team.  
I'm sure both of them will do extremely well with their teammates!

For more information on the Minecraft Tournament of the century, subscribe to our newsletter MinecraftingToTheMax, and receive notifications whenever we post an update!  
Posted [July 14, 2137] by Max Synth

The ride to the Cybergy building was a quiet one. Since he and the rest of the trio took some form of public transportation, they were all carpooling with Techno and his old junkpile of a flier. With Techno busy driving and A6d falling asleep in the front seat, Zak turned to his phone for entertainment. People were going nuts on SM, all of his fans were eagerly awaiting the moment the stream would go live. He switched to the event website because someone said there was more info on it now. According to the website, each team would have one camera on them at all times, and microphones would be attached to their in-game earpieces. There was a mute button on the model they’d be using. If they needed to, they could discuss something privately then. 

“Hey, Skeppy, what are you reading?”

Bad whispered to his side and when Zak turned his friend’s face was WAY too close to his and he jumped back towards the door of the car. Bad didn’t seem to notice- not that he could tell with Bad’s hoodie.

“Oh nothing, haha, just some stuff about the tournament. The microphones they’re gonna have us use are seriously high-tech. Here, look.” 

Zak handed his phone over and let Bad marvel at said mics on his phone. They debated the pros and cons of the mic model,  
and before Zak knew it their driver had brought the car to a stop.

“We’re here.” 

Techno tapped A6d on the shoulder, and the four of them got out and admired the view. A valet came and took their car after arguing with Techno before they left the parking lot (“Fancy, but I'd rather just do it myself."). Outside, Zak could see the building they would be heading to. A large glass tower stood, dwarfing all the nearby buildings in the area. The yard in front, Ecograss-green, perfectly shaded to give the impression of a well watered lawn, and a fountain in the center of the pathway with the Cybergy logo spitting water at them as they went past into the building.  
The inside lobby was a bit more humble than the exterior. A reception area awaited the newtubers, along with a lounge area of couches and a mounted television on the wall.

“Woah, this is so cool. Even the reception area is fancy here!”

“Bad, you thought the parking lot was fancy.”

“It is, A6d!!!! How often do you see an Ecograss parking lot? Like never, huh?”

“We literally have them everywhere in France, America is just stupid.”

“Really??? What’s Ecograss in French then?”

A6d sighed, and Zak laughed at his dumb friends. If only they could always interact irl like this. Techno hid behind Zak and looked at the receptionist desk in fear.  
“Stop horsing around and help me check us in, you amateurs, I dont wanna talk to the secretary alone guys pls.”  
Techno sighed in defeat when no one responded, and Zak took pity on him. They went over to the counter while A6d and Bad argued over French words. The receptionist was an android, of course, but you could barely tell at first glance, she looked so human. Dark skin and hair that looked like it was made from space itself, she looked like no other receptionist droid he had ever seen. The holographic planets shimmered whenever she moved her head, and he couldn’t help but be captivated by the miniature galaxy in front of him. 

“Uh...Skeppy? You in there?” 

A hand waved in front of Zak’s face, and the trance was broken. Techno had a concerned look on his face, and the receptionist was looking at him. Ohhhhkay maybe not stare at the receptionist is a good idea.  
The android didn’t seem too bothered by it, and greeted them cheerfully, sensor swirling gently as she scanned their IDs.

“Why, hello, gentlemen! You’re here to check into the event, I presume? Skeppy and Technoblade, welcome to Cybergy headquarters!” 

The receptionist looked so human, sounded so human - if not for the blue light on her head she would probably pass flawlessly as a human with glamour mods.  
While Bad and A6d got checked in, Zak whispered over to Techno,

“Bro, that android hurts my brain wtf, she looks so human”

“I mean yeah, but like, androids can look human too my dude. Its not new - You never played Detroit: Become Human?"

"No."

Techno rolled his eyes at him. Aw c'mon, it can't be that important, can it?  
When all of them were checked in, the lot of them headed to the sitting area. Zak turned his attention to the TV. It had the Cybergy livestream channel on, and a certain professor of blocks was giving the news. 

"Just two more hours to go until the livestreams start! Are you guys excited, because I'm excited!!!"

The reporter paused and touched his headpiece, and started up excitedly again.

"This just in! My sources tell me that four more Newtubers have just entered the building! That's 28 of them now!!!"

Wow, that's a lot of people, Why'd they all get here so early? There's still a few hours to go until it starts. He wondered if they should've gotten there sooner…

"So many people are here already? Wonder where they all went. You'd think at least someone would be waiting in the lobby with us." Techno asked no one in particular, but the secretary answered from her desk.

"Currently, all of the participants that have arrived before you are being set up to the virtual reality machines. When a service android is free, we'll set you up."

Techno thanked her, and they all sat and waited.  
Waited, waited, waited. A few teams passed through the lobby, but they were all checked in quickly and ushered through the hallway behind the reception desk.  
It was kind of odd how they themselves had to wait so long, but one of the people he had seen that had gone through (that he knew) was 10x his channel size, so it was probably just that famous streamers get better service. Lameeee. Hopefully that's it and not that they were forgotten about or something.

Thankfully Zak was proven wrong a couple minutes later; it wasn't just them. A few other streamers that had also gotten the waiting treatment were talking with Techno on the other couch.  
Zak recognized them as the SMP dudes he had seen on the list, as well as the 5 year hardcore Minecraft guy. In one of the separate chairs, A6d was doing something on his phone, and nothing was on the TV. So boringgggggggg.  
Resigned to his fate, Zak got comfortable against Bad on the couch and decided to take a nap. Sleep deprivation of a NTer setting in, he fell fast asleep. 

He dreamed nothing.

It seemed like no time had passed when a gentle hand nudged his side.

"Myeah?"

"Wake up, you muffin. It's time for us to go." 

Zak made an unintelligible groan and lifted his head up. 

"Already?? I just fell asleep though…"

“It’s been awhile, but they’re ready to set us up now.” Bad helped him stand up, and they got off the couch.

The rest of the lobby was empty save for them and Techno. According to Bad, A6d decided to go ahead and get set up, and the other streamers had gone with him.  
The secretary was there as well, and Zak almost didn't notice her next to Techno at the door. She seemed to be waiting for them.

"Right this way, gentlemen. The service androids will set you up shortly."

Zak followed Bad over to the door to the hallway, but just before he stepped through the glass, the secretary stopped him. Bad and Techno were met by another android, and they were alone.  
As Zak was about to ask why she stopped him, the secretary handed him a small piece of paper.

"You might need this. Remember the number for next time."

She smiled as she spoke, and again Zak wondered whose idea it was to make this android so lifelike anyway.

"Um, thanks? What do you mean by next time?"

"You will see."

She opened the door, still smiling, and Zak was greeted by a service android waiting for him.

"Good luck in there, Zak."

Only slightly unnerved, Zak opened the paper when he could no longer see the galaxy hair. When he saw what was on the paper, he burst out laughing.

"aHHhaHHhahahahaah seriously???? This is great, thanks Miss Android.”

The service android looked at him weird, but he didn't care. Somehow, the pretty galaxy android was a fan of his, and honestly it inflated his ego a bit.  
He couldn't help but wonder what the purpose of a paper reading 14 was though.


	5. flutter//

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi hello i love persona 4 sm......if u understand my references ily forever
> 
> also big yikes on the recent smp drama 
> 
> tldr shipping real people and/or taking their stuff is bad dont do it kids

The service android led Zak down the hallway where Bad and Techno were waiting, and they took an elevator to one of the higher floors. When the doors opened, the first thing he saw was...more doors. The area looked newly renovated, as though a whole new area had been made for the event. He supposed they would've had to, given it was Brand New Technology! and all. Techno was pushed into one of the doors towards the center of the hall, and the other two went through the door on the far left. 

"Welcome gentlemen. We will begin the setup procedure shortly. Before that, please sign this waiver, stating Cybergy will not be held legally responsible…"

Three service androids waited quietly, when the android who had guided the two of them spoke, telling them all the terms of service they needed to know. Zak tuned out halfway through to look around. The room they entered was a fairly small room, hosting two couches on either side of the walls, hosting green and blue cushions with the Cybergy logo. A table sat at the back in between, and there were two strange-looking VR headsets on top. Probably the immersion gear they'd be using. 

"Sign here."

One of the service androids handed him a tablet and a stylus, and he signed it as quickly as possible. She took it from him and gestured for Zak to sit on the couch to the right. Bad sat opposite him. The androids started to tinker with the equipment once they were settled, instructing the NTers to wait.

"What so you think it'll be like in the VR, Skeppy?"

"I dunno. Total immersion's supposed to be different than regular VR. Maybe it’ll actually be like the ads say it is this time."

"I wonder what we'll look like in the game. Hopefully it's just our Minecraft skins or something…"

Bad seemed nervous when he spoke the second time, leaning slightly back. And he still had his hood on… Is Bad still worried about that? 

"It'll probably just be like in Minecraft, bet. Block game, block people, right?"

Bad sat up a little more after he said that. Good. Though now that he thinks about it, how are they going to handle their in-game looks? Zak wondered to himself. Would they have fingers or not, if they were their Minecraft skins? That sounds kinda like a clickbait video.

One of the androids walked up to the couch with a small tin. It rattled as the android walked. It looked like one of those containers of candy he always saw by the counter of the 8/11.

"To make this process more efficient, you will both ingest this sweetened pill. It contains a sleeping agent, and you will wake up in the virtual world."

That sounded fairly harmless. It made sense, if he came up with enough reasons to believe it. The “sweetened pill” was totally just candy with drugs in it though. He shrugged, and took one of the candies. His vision blurred a bit, one android turning into multiple. The couch seemed to be ten times more appealing than before.

"When you have ingested the pill, please lie down with your head on the cushion. The process will begin when you are fully asleep."

The overwhelming feeling of tiredness made lying down easy. Zak's eyes closed. This is nice, he thought, as he drifted off for a ride to the unconscious.

\--------------------------------------------  
He dreamed of a black void, a light fog surrounding him. When it cleared, he could see a small room. This is nice. He was participating in an event after all. There’s no way they would just drug all of the Newtubers. He was just waiting in a cozy waiting area. 

This lobby seemed to be a calming room, playing light music from a radio and having dimmed blue lighting. Even that secretary was here, sitting at her desk, doing paperwork. Then he saw something blue in the corner of his eye.

“...?”

A beautiful, blue butterfly was flying around the room. The wings seemed to catch the light as it bobbed up and down. Zak reached out to the butterfly to touch it, but it flew towards the desk. He tried to speak, to tell the secretary to look, but his voice wouldn’t work. The butterfly landed on her shoulder, and she turned her head.

“Oh, we have a guest, I see.”

The artificial eyes of the secretary glowed when she looked at him, literally. A smile reached her lips.

“A most unusual destiny lies before you, Zak Carder. Do you know why you are here?”

He shook his head.

“Ah, of course. You have not entered this room before, have you? I should introduce myself properly, then.”

She touched the wings of the butterfly gently before speaking again.

“My name is Margaret. Welcome to a place that exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. This is where you will spend your dreams; until you accomplish what you must.”

Still unable to form speech, Zak tilted his head to ask what she meant.

“Your duties will become clear soon enough. For now, I am simply here to give you what you need. In order to do that, you must sign a contract with me.”

Margaret rummaged through the papers on her desk, the butterfly fluttering away in annoyance. It decided to sit on Zak’s arm. The shuffle of papers stopped, and a paper with a quill and ink appeared, floating in front of him.

“If you would do well to sign this, you will be able to save them.”

Save who, he wondered. It seemed like a fairly obvious choice though, no matter how crazy it seemed. He took the quill and signed the paper without bothering to read the contractual obligations. Zak was still calm, though this obviously wasn’t a waiting room. What drugs made dreams this realistic he did not know. It must be the ambiance or something that was keeping his emotions in check.

“Thank you very much, my guest.”

The music abruptly stopped, and the lights flickered.

“Ah, your time is up, my friend. Good luck out there. And do try to win, would you? Your friends are counting on you.”

Then the room and android and butterfly all disappeared at once, and they gave way to a new sight, making him forget all about what he was thinking.

\--------------------------------------------  
Zak was standing on a small raised platform. A giant coliseum surrounded him, pillars, seats, and all. The middle of the coliseum where the platforms rested was covered with grass, like a football field on the History channel. A large cornucopia sat in the center. Interspersed around the field were several other platforms like his own, and Newtubers were spread out all around. He could see so many famous people from here - is that DanTDM? It was absolutely breathtaking.

"Whoa…"

He kinda just stood there, taking the sight in. Everyone seemed to be in some approximation of their Minecraft skin, but humanized (the company probably thought an anthropomorphic pig wouldn't get that good of reception with the female fans). Nor a diamond block man apparently. Zak himself was wearing a brand new Skeppy Hoodie Merch and light blue everything else, which was great. It was terrible in terms of fashion, but the outfit itself was great. 

He spotted Techno chilling against the cornucopia, talking to what looked to be A6d. It was funny to see Techno in a king's outfit. Those boots looked hilarious on his real-life self. A6d seemed to be in the same awkward phase of wearing an outfit made for Minecraft graphics, the large black sweater not fitting his friend at all.

As he was about to make his way over, Bad popped into existence on the platform beside him. Upon the sudden existence, Bad's knees buckled underneath him and would have fallen off the platform if Zak didn't catch him.

"Agdjdgsbfs, soRRy. Oh, Skeppy? Hi."

Haha, this idiot! Bad was wearing the hooded outfit of his skin, although the hood fell when he fell. The face was the same that he'd seen a few times before, though a little clearer. The program must have enhanced their faces to make them look better for the cameras. 

"Yo Bad, you okay there? Why'd you fall off?"

Zak let his friend down.

"I was gonna go talk to Techno and A6d, wanna come with me?"

Bad seemed to brighten up more, and he followed Zak over to the cornucopia.

"Eyyyy its Skeppy and Halo, you guys finally here!"

Techno waved them over, and A6d said hi. Zak wondered how long of a gap between setup and arrival was - how long did it take to get into the game? Ah well. It wasn't that important. What mattered was that they were ingame now.

"Our skins look pretty neat! Wow, Techno just straight up got a crown, that's cool."

Bad was showing off his own robe,A6d seemed displeased with his outfit, though it was probably pretty comfortable, and Techno seemed pleased with the crown. It gave Zak a fun idea.  
"That crown does look pretty cool on you, buuuuuuuuut I bet it'd look cool on me too!"

Zak quickly swiped the crown from Techno, who gasped in surprise. Quickly turning from shock to Full PvP mode, Zak made a break for it, sprinting back towards the pedestals.

"Get back here, you clown, that's mine!"

"You gotta catch me first, idiot!"

Zak laughed as Techno chased after him. They probably looked ridiculous, but who cares. Might as well have some fun before the serious event begins, right?

At least that's what he thought until he collided into someone. The crown dropped onto the grass and rolled too far for Zak to reach it.

"Ahhhhhh, shit, sorry, sorry, sorry!! I didn't mean to run into you!"

Turns out he ran into someone he knew. A very frazzled Captainsparklez, to be exact. A very famous Minecrafter, well known for the genius of Revenge. He also did bee-themed Minecraft videos on occasion, aaaaaaand that was all Zak could remember.

"Aw, no dude, I'm so gonna get demonetized…"

Sparklez seemed to be alright, but it was hard to tell with no HP bar - not like normal Minecraft had that anyway. Hopefully, people collisions didn’t do damage like minecarts did. 

“Crap, my bad, are you okay?”

It was then that Techno caught up and stole his crown back from the ground. He held it up triumphantly. And another Newtuber arrived as well, holding some tablet in his hand. It was Antvenom, Sparklez’ teammate. Both of them spoke at once.

"Aw yeah, come back to-"

"Jordan, I got the contract…"

Everyone stopped and just stared at each other. Time just stopped, it felt like. It was reaaaaaaally awkward. Zak spoke quickly to escape the painful silence,

"Sorry about that man, I'm gonna go talk to my friends now okay bye"

\--------------------------------------------  
Zak quickly made his way back over to his friends, leaving Techno with two very famous people just standing right in front of him. 

"Captainsparklez and Antvenom, huh? Prepare to be d e s t r o y e d in survival games."

Techno flashed them a big smile, and got back to Skeppy as quickly as he could. Ahhhh, why'd he say that??? He heard Sparklez yelling, and cringed inside at what he had said. Were the cameras getting to him? What should he do?

"Not unless we get you first! You're gonna get rekt, buckaroo!"

\--------------------------------------------  
And now they were all back where they started. Right by the cornucopia, the four of them chilling out until start. 

“So what anime do you guys watch?”

Bad started a conversation about some anime and Zak tuned it out, taking the time to zone out. In the corner of his eye, he noticed a digital clock in the sky that definitely hadn’t been there before. It read 0:10, and kept decreasing. Is that the time until the tournament starts?

“Guys, I think it’s going to start soon. Look.”

He pointed it out, and when his friends went to look, the time had reached 0:00. The crackle of a microphone being started startled the lot of them, and a booming voice echoed out from somewhere in the sky.

“Welcome, one and all, to the FIRST. EVER. CYBERGY. MINECRAFT. TOURNAMENT!!!!!!!!! I’m your host, Azalea Crawford, and I’m extremely excited to be here today! Let’s get this party started, y’all!


	6. drive//

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dam this took me almost a month to write????? am i ok in the head????? anyways long as hecc chapter pls enjoy thank u  
ps im posting this on my friend/editors birthday HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDITOR UR COOL KINDA

A girl bounced on screen, dressed in a cutesy-type outfit, large pink pigtails flailing in the movement. She sat down at a table in front of the camera, and waved cheerfully. This must be the announcer, Azalea Crawford. Zak recognized her as the rep for Cybergy’s NewTube channel. Driven by peer pressure and the vintage "Applause" subtitles, everyone applauded for her. She continued to speak when they quieted down,

“Since this is, you know, the FIRST ever VR tournament in MINECRAFT, I’m going to explain some things to all you guys and gals. First off, each team is equipped with one camera and two microphones."-  
Images of both popped onto Azalea's screen.

"The viewers can see you easily and you can talk to the viewers! And each other of course. Your controls for these are located within your virtual self’s ears, with a mute/unmute button (mute will mute you to everyone) and a volume adjuster. No camera adjusting, though!.”

Zak brought his hand to his ear and found a small device there he sworn hadn’t been there before. Now that he was aware of it, he could feel it weighing slightly on his ears. Others had a similar reaction, checking their ears as well. 

Techno whispered, “Feels kinda weird now, not gonna lie.”

Azalea continued talking. She explained how the tournament would work here. There would be two survival game rounds, one at the beginning of the tournament, and one at the end. Between the two, there would be five minigame rounds, each testing different strengths of the NewTubers. The minigames would be a parkour race, a survival bingo match, a game called Find the Button, and an assassins game.

“Now, since you guys don’t have a keyboard and mouse in front of you, you’re probably wondering how PvP will work! Don’t worry, Azalea is here to help!”

Azalea flashed a big smile, and grabbed something lying to the side of the camera. The view panned over to a dummy of what looked like Max Synth. What the heck is she doing..? Her smile didn't leave as Azalea stabbed the dummy's head. It bled like it was human (Zak really hoped it was a dummy), and she stabbed it, over and over, cackling maniacally,

Zak cringed as the dummy was stabbed in the balls. He could see Bad covering his eyes. Azalea looked back at the camera, coated in (fake?) blood,

“You’re going to murder each other!"

Then Azalea burst out laughing, and the blood disappeared, like nothing had ever happened.She threw the now-unharmed dummy outside of the camera's view and continued.

“You look so serious, lol, it's just a prop! It won’t be exactly like murder, but the concept is the same. You will have a health bar, and the damage depends on where you're hit. Head wounds are almost 100% fatal! Armor can reduce damage the same as it would in regular MC, and when you “take damage”, you won’t really feel much pain! Isn’t technology wonderful?”

Zak felt slightly disturbed as she paused to take a sip of water. She explained each of the minigames, their scoring systems, and how they would work. To summarize, certain actions would give a set amount of points each, and whoever got the most amount of points would win the 100,000. It was simple and straightforward.

“Now, everyone is going to be teleported to their platforms, and the first survival game will begin shortly! Good luck everyone, and hasta la pasta!”

Zak sighed in relief. His stomach dispelled that relief instantly, the anxiety of the situation setting in. So many people would be watching this. The team camera they were assigned wouldn't be summoned until they were teleported, but there were several large cameras floating around, focusing on different groups. He quickly glanced at the nearest one: it showed his own group in it. Techno looked like he was preparing for a race. Bad was doing that thing with his hoodie that he always did (except he had no drawstrings to fiddle with, so it was just the hood material itself). A6d was fiddling with the microphone in his ear, and Zak checked his own. It was on default settings, and he poked around the volume settings until he was satisfied.

That was all he had time to do before his vision blurred. Black and static filled his vision. For a split second, though, he thought he could see something blue in the corner of his eye. Before he could look, Zak was standing on a familiar stone platform. 

“Game start in 10, 9, 8…”

The arena was the same, though the platforms now held the Newtubers. Cameras floated above, recording all 48 of them. Some anticipating the match, some testing their control over the game, and some terrified. Like the team to his left, shaking for control and trying to make her face look better, a beauty Newtuber he vaguely recognized. The first match is the most important for those people. It’s not just doing well overall for the base money reward. Doing well can lead to many opportunities.

He looked over at Bad and nodded towards the center. Bad looked at him confused. Of course he did. Zak hissed into his mic, cringing at how loud he was.

“Bad, go center.”

“Ohhhhhh, yeah, got it.”

He could hear giggling from the team to his right. Before he could turn to look at his newfound nemesis, the camera above him made a whirring sound and disappeared, Azalea's voice snapped Zak back into focus,

“3, 2, 1, GAME START!”

The announcer shouted the last three numbers, a gunshot sounded, and they were off!

Zak sprinted as fast as he could manage toward the nearest chest. The creaking of several chests being opened at once filled his ears, and he grabbed everything he could. A couple of iron ingots, leather boots, and the prize: a wooden sword.

Before he could think about anything else, he heard footsteps. Zak whipped around and saw a dude charging at him with a stone axe and were those iron leggings?? It wasn't anyone he recognized, but the voice sounded familiar.

"You look like a good target!"

Okay, first of all, RUDE, and second, he was severely outclassed with that armor. Was he really going to he the first to die? That's a new low, even for him. There was no choice but to run. He quickly yelled over his shoulder,

"Fu- frick! Bad, head to the far exit of the arena, I'll meet you there!"

"Okay, got it!"

He could hear the microphone crackling with the quick mute. Without waiting for the guy to kill him, Zak followed Bad to the exit of the coliseum. The other Newtuber didn't chase him. A gunshot rang out quickly afterwards. 

It looked like two other Newtubers had also run to the farthest exit, but hadn't managed to get any loot. They would be easy to take down, but he recognized one of them: he would feel bad taking Grandday down so quickly in game.

…

He let them run past, and they were quickly out of sight. Bad was within the coliseum walls waiting for him, and they ran outside into a jungle. Two more gunshots rang out. He hoped they weren't who he thought it was

They hunkered down in a fairly large bush, branches scratching at his hoodie as they hid. They each showed off their loot. Bad had a gold helmet on top of his hood and a bowl of soup. Zak didn't bother laughing at the irony. 

"Skeppy, what's the plan?"

"We need to get better gear, kill people, and win. Simple."

"That's not simple at all."

"Exactly."

The adrenaline was wearing off quickly. If they didn't get more gear soon they would certainly be screwed. Was his heart supposed to race this much in a video game? It was never this stressful playing regular survival games. Bad was starting to look concerned... Zak took a deep breath, and saw something not jungly outside the bush. There was some sort of structure, right near where they were.

"Bad, let's go. I see something over there, might have loot."

The place Zak had seen turned out to be a large jungle city. Abandoned and ruinous, the structures were missing a lot of their blocks, covered in vines and leaves everywhere. He had no idea what kind of ancient civilization it was meant to be, and didn't really care.

"Bad, a chest! You go that way, I'll search this half of the city. There's gotta be some loot here!"

Bad nodded, and they split off. The first abandoned building was completely decimated, leaving only the dirty quartz floor and some pillars. There was a chest where some of the floor had been. Chain chestplate, two apples, one string, and an arrow.

The buildings all became samey as Zak rushed through them, looking for whatever chests he could find. He and Bad were able to keep updating each other on their loot, discovering their mics could communicate long distance. Bad found good armor for both of them. Zak himself crafted a nice iron sword with a stick and the iron he had gotten from mid. The occasional gunshot accompanied the creaks of each chest he opened. It looked like none of the other players had found the city so far, which was insanely lucky.

That's what he thought, anyway, until he entered a two-story crumbled villa. The two chests upstairs in the bedroom were empty. 

"Shoot, someone's been here-"

"Skeppy? Where are you, we should meet up-"

Zak quickly muted and hid himself in the closet. Downstairs, he could hear the door opening. He could hear two voices, both male. His heart was pounding, and Zak hoped whoever it was hadn't seen him. He didn't have the gear to take a 2v1, and he didn't know how to tell Bad where he was without giving away his own position. 

"You sure you saw him going into this house, Jordan?"

"Positive, my dude. He was alone, we should be able to take him. We need the points."

"Okay, but I don't see him anywhere here. He's probably upstairs, let's look."

Zak heard the clatter of boots on quartz. He tried to stay as quiet as possible, making himself small in the shadows. The door of the closet was half-rotten, so hopefully they would think he didn't try to hide there (he did) and was gone (he was not). He tried to quiet his breathing in case they could hear. The Newtubers spoke again,

"Still not here, Jordan."

"Aw, poop, and I thought we had him, too! 

Zak heard the chests open. A lot more people are in the area than he thought, apparently. He felt dumb thinking that they would be the only ones in the large ruins. Antvenom spoke again,

"Nothing in the chests either."

"What a waste… At least we managed to get that guy with the crown earlier. Revenge does taste sweet."

"Yeah, but two kills isn't going to get us enough points to win. Let's get going, Sparklez, this place is a dead end."

When they were gone, Zak unmuted and let out a huge breath of relief. 

"Bad, where are you? Sorry, had to mute, almost got annihilated by Sparklez-"

"Oh thank goodness, I heard a gunshot after you muted and thought you died!! Where are you, Skeppy? I'm at -8793, 9622."

"…"

"Skeppy?"

"...Bad, how do I check coords in this?"

A short explanation later, and Zak discovers he can basically turn F1 +F3 at the same time, showing HP, death messages (according to Bad, there weren't any currently) and coordinates. Epik. Another gunshot rings out. This time, however, Azalea's voice cheerfully accompanies it, as well as a death message pop-up. He didn't recognise the dead.

"The border will now start shrinking towards the center! The remaining one-third of players, watch out! If you stay in the border too long, you'll start to suffocate...good luck!"

He quickly finds his way to his teammate with the coordinates. As soon as Zak sees him, 

"Bad, what gear do you have, please tell me it's good. "

"Uh, I have an iron helmet for you, a chain chestplate, more soup…"

A quick inventory check of them both revealed they were completely and utterly screwed. Bad hadn't managed to get much of anything, and neither had he. The city was full of loot all right, but none of it was really that good. With the help of a crafting table nearby an abandoned well, they managed to scrape by with a mix of armor types, the lone iron chestplate going to Zak. They also filled each other in on what happened when Zak had muted.

"So Techno and A6d are for sure dead? Those poor muffins, I didn't want to believe it when I saw the message…"

"At least you managed to get a kill before the border shrink, I didn't get anything."

Zak would be going into this with no experience with combat in a virtual reality setting. Bad had gotten lucky with an off-guard noob. He was kinda regretting letting Grandday and his teammate go now. Zak's mind was a mess while they fled the border, quickly closing in on them. He didn't know what teams were left, though he hoped Sparklez and Antvenom were dead. He figured they had a pretty good chance of winning, especially if they had taken Techno of all people out of the running. 

"We're so screwed, Bad, I barely know how to swing a sword without a mouse, how are we gonna win this?"

"We're just going to have to do our best. If we don't win the first round, that's okay. We still have 6 more rounds of games. We just gotta do well in those, and we'll win this."

"Yeah...oh, hey, a chest!"

There was a chest, in plain sight, right by the edge of the forest. Zak could see the coliseum on the opposite side.

"I'll get it!"

Bad raced over towards the chest, and Zak got a fun idea. So he started running as well.

“Haha, bet I can get it first!”

Bad looked at him catching up, and started running faster. Legs pumping beneath him, Zak was determined to win this stupid race he’d started. Bad got there first, though. He was laughing, and it spread to Zak as well. Even though he’d lost, he didn’t feel very defeated. Zak flopped onto the ground to catch his breath, and Bad started to speak.

“Haha, that was fun. Now, let’s see what’s in this chest - oh my muffins, that's a ravine.”

“What?”

The fun wore off as Zak got up and gazed over to the chest. Though it wasn’t a large one, sure enough, there was a ravine right near the chest. He could spot some iron ore from here too. Dang, if only they had a pickaxe.

“That wasn’t there before, I don’t think. Were we in this part of the arena when we started, Bad?”

“I don’t think we were. It looks kinda out of place though, I wonder if it spawned because of a trap or something.”

“You wanna test how deep it is? I can throw you down there and you can tell me if you die of fall damage or not.”

“Ha, ha, very funny Skeppy. Anyways, let’s see what’s in th-”

Before either of them could react, an arrow flew out from the coliseum wall. The aim and angle were perfect. And then there was an arrow in his teammate’s head. He collapsed into Zak’s arms. Blood trickled down his face slowly where the arrow had entered. It had hit just perfectly below the helmet he had been wearing. Another arrow shot, and he moved quickly back towards the forest, teammate in arms. 

Zak quickly tried unmuting and muting his microphone, in case Bad was talking,

“Aw, shit, we’re screwed. Bad, talk to me! Baaaaaaaaaad!”

No response. Damn. Two gunshots went off in the distance and two death messages appeared. One was Bad, another was someone he didn't recognise. Guess he really is dead then. And no response means they’re cut off from each other whenever one of them dies. No moral support from beyond the grave could mess him up really bad.

He gently laid down the body of his friend. Zak tried not to look at him for fear of breaking down into tears. His heart was beating fast, faster than it had been before. Bad lying dead on the ground didn’t help. Even if this was just a videogame, the hyperrealistic death left him wanting to vomit. It’s just a game, he had to keep telling himself that. 

Another gunshot sounded, and Azalea’s voice returned once more. 

“Oh danggggg, we down to the final five my dudes! Since there’s only a few of y’all left, the border’s going to shrink all the way down to the coliseum walls. Don’t worry if you’re outside, because I’ll teleport everyone inside of it. Good luck in there!!!”

Shit. He was not at all prepared to go into deathmatch alone. His hands shaking, Zak looked inside the chest. Bad had died trying to get laid the ingredients for two more soups. The irony wasn't lost on him. With that and Bad's armor, Zak had full iron and four soups. It was better than he could've hoped for being a solo at the end of the game. 

His heart couldn't slow down as he ran towards the coliseum, hopefully finding a good hiding spot before the teleport. It appeared no one else was inside, but Zak knew better. He took caution as he slowly made his way into the upper levels of the arena, in case the attacker was still there. He reached the third floor when Azalea's cheerful voice announced,

"Thirty seconds until the teleport!"

Great. There still wasn't any good vantage point to be found. Zak's heart and legs pumped faster and faster until he reached an open room on the top floor. 

"What is this..?"

The room had a wall taken out of the quartz, facing the arena. There were several seats near the window, and Zak realised they were for the audience. The rich audience, the ones who could afford such a private room would watch ancient games here. It was abandoned now, but the room looked more kept than the rest of the building. Further examination revealed a poster completely coated in dust on the counter. From what he could read of it, it said, 'Buy my Youtooz' with a small pig logo. He wished he could screenshot it for Techno to share later. One thought plagued his mind though: What the hecc is a youtooz?

Before he could look around any more, his vision blurred once again. Azalea had teleported them onto the stone pedestals for the deathmatch. Four others were interspersed among the platforms, decked out in iron (and even some enchanted!!) armor. Then there's Skeppy. He checked his gear once more and sighed,

"I'm so screwed…"

Azalea joined in full force from her sky screen. She was still cheerful as she had been. This time though, she also had a display with the names and team affiliations of the remaining survivors. When she named them off, he sighed. Of course it's two full teams against one lone diamond man.

Azalea grabbed her mic and yelled, "Three, two, one, fight!"

The gunshot blasted off again like a rocket, and so did Skeppy because he ran away as fast as he could. He had no choice, okay! A solo can't win against two teams! He ran into the walls of the arena and hid. He would have the advantage if the teams split up or eliminated each other's teammates. The clang of swords echoed outside the quartz, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He sat down next to a window and waited for the gunshots to ring out before making his next move.

In a weird epiphany he remembered he had fans still watching. He looked for the camera they had, but it was still invisible. He just said the first thing he could think of out loud to keep them with him, putting on his best Newtuber face,

"Okay guys, let's do this!"


	7. Interlude 1: Dream Team Scene

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> writing is hard but dream team is here to help! fun fact while i was writing during class an observer came in and she read some of this! i was extremely afraid! that was not a fun day

"And now we'll be back, right after the break!"

"UGHHHHH ARE YOU SERIOUS"

Clay groaned as the TV turned to an advertisement right when it was about to be at an exciting moment. George leaned forward to grab the remote. He muted the TV, and Clay leaned back to talk to Sapnap,

"Yo dude, is the popcorn done?"

"Dream are you serious - it's been done, so it’s all cold already. Why are you asking now; a whole hour after I told you "Guys, popcorn’s done." but nooooo, Skephalo is more important than my feelings." Sapnap made an exaggerated sad expression from over the counter.

George laughed. Clay hit him on the head with one of the sofa pillows, which made him laugh even more.

"It was at a good part okay?? I have reasons."

Clay started to laugh and shoved George about to get his revenge with the other pillow to the end of the couch. Sapnap sighed as they started to hit each other with the pillows. 

"Children, the both of you."

He took a handful of cold popcorn and chewed while the two "children" played with the cushions. Eventually they did settle down, and Sapnap was able to claim the left side of the couch next to Clay.

"What do you guys think are his odds of winning? A solo vs 2 teams no less, RIP Bad" Sapnap passed the popcorn over to Clay, who took a handful.

"Yeah, that headshot was so scuffed. From what I can tell, he might have a chance from where he is now. If Skeppy can get lucky and the other two teams kill each other, he could win" 

"My theory is- Dream stahp that omg"

Clay had moved to lie on both of his friends. Neither really resisted, but while Sapnap only seemed mildly inconvenienced, George complained.

"Why? It's not gay if we both have our socks on"

"Dream no"

"Dream yes"

Sapnap just sighed, and took another handful of cold popcorn, looking up to the TV.

"Yo, is that Max Synth? What’s he doing on tv?"

The screen had changed from the Diet Cola ad to a certain blue haired journalist, who seemed to be wrestling for control of the microphone with Azalea Crawford. Clay grabbed some popcorn from the bowl,

"Dude, turn the volume back on this is interesting"

George grabbed the remote and quickly turned the sound on, which he regretted immediately because Max and Azalea were LOUD.

"MAX GIVE ME THE ****ING MICROPHONE" 

Azalea screamed at the journalist beside her. It could have just been her proximity to the mic, but George quickly turned the volume down. Dream munched his snack as Max yelled back, though much quieter, thankfully,

"NO I NEED TO SAY SOMETHING TO THE PEOPLE IT’S IMPORTANT"

Max’s face was contorted into what could only be described as a manic fear. He could make out a smaller voice in the background, likely the cameraman, trying to calm them down, but he was drowned out by Azalea,

"RIGHT NOW THE EVENT IS WHAT'S IMPORTANT NOW GET YOUR *** OUT OF HERE BEFORE I CALL SECURITY"

Clay could see veins popping out of her pale skin. Max made another grab for the mic, and shouted into it the best he could, 

"SHUT THE **** UP AZALEA IT'S ABOUT THE ANDROIDS THEY'RE -"

Max's final attempt to say what he wanted was drowned out by the screeching of the microphone being thrown across the room, clattering across the studio floor. The two of them disappeared off screen, and was replaced with a screen that said “Please Stand By”. Clay imagined they were probably cursing each other out by now. That poor cameraman...

"Max and Azalea have always had an intense rivalry, haven't they?" Sapnap said, passing the bowl to the center with Clay.

"They argue so much it's a wonder they haven't torn each others throats out yet." 

"Really? I always thought they were secretly dating or something." 

"Don't be silly George, that only happens in poorly written romance novels that rely on terrible plot mechanics to somehow turn hate into love.” 

"I dunno, enemies to lovers is a common trope in fanfic, so that isn’t exactly true all the time."

"Eh whatever the only ship that really matters is Ske-" 

"Dream, no-" 

Clay laughed, and Azalea returned on screen, looking more disheveled than before, with outfit askew and hair freed from its normal ponytail state. He could barely hear the sounds of protest coming from off the camera, assumedly Max being escorted from the property.

"I wonder if Max is gonna get arrested for this" Clay asked no one in particular. 

"What do you think he was saying at the end? About the androids..." George had a thoughtful look on his face as he stared at the screen.

Azalea fixed her microphone and began commentary once again, apparently the Max issue solved. The screen faded to the camera on the coliseum, and they were back to the tournament. The Dream Team settled down and continued their tournament watching.

"Aw yes, let's go!! C’mon, Skeppy, you got this." Clay pumped his fists in the air, George copying the movement soon after,

"Heck yeah! Win it for us!"

Sapnap left the half-empty popcorn bowl in Clay's lap and went back into the kitchen, muttering to himself,

"I'm gonna need more popcorn…"


	8. cease//

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i would like to formally apologize to everyone whos read this: i will definitely be finishing this fanfiction. updates may be skewed, but this will definitely be completed. i am sorry if i worried anyone, but thank you for sticking with me and continuing to read my work! ilyall <3333  
edit: haha 14000 words

Now peering outside the opening in the coliseum wall, Zak could see the carnage in the center of the field. It was a 2v2 between the other teams. It looked pretty evenly matched from where he was. All he could do was hope they eliminated each other.

Azalea’s screen was also visible, and her face had been replaced with images of the remaining Newtubers. To his surprise, he didn’t recognize any of them. You would think some Minecrafter names would make it to death match, right? 

A gunshot rang, and the Newtuber on the far right was greyed out. According to the description beneath, he was a guy by the username Alexiede, with 10 million subs and counting. That’s about...ten times his channel size? Again, why Zak out of everyone had been picked to play evaded him. At this point he was starting to think it was just someone picking their favorites to fight each other to the death.

“Imagine me being someone’s favorite, can’t relate haha”

The fight continued without Alex, and shortly another gunshot sounded. The girl on the opposite team, GhostieGames, was eliminated. It was now a 1v1, as they kept going at it. Zak thinks he saw one of the dudes eating a golden apple, but it might've been his imagination.

He felt somewhat removed from the fighting, honestly. The anxiety from the possibility of being taken out hadn’t gone away, but no one had noticed him yet, and it was getting boring just sitting around. Waiting for them to land some hits only to run away when one of them thought they were too damaged to fight…

“Boringggggg. Let’s go see if we can find that weird poster again. Guys, make sure you screenshot it, I wanna show it to Techno when we’re done.”

Entertaining the crowd with various jokes and quips about his situation, Zak started to feel normal again. Like he was just recording a vlog, except the vlog is in a death arena and also he isn't holding a camera.

What remaining concerns he had left had dissolved completely, and he starts going up into the coliseum (again). He can let the other two guys fight it out a bit more, and then he can finish off the remaining guy with his super awesome PvP skills. Skeppy doesn’t need a keyboard to annihilate his competition! 

“Aw yes! Cheer for me, guys, I got this!”

Zak gave the camera (he’s pretty sure it’s right there now) a huge smile and did a victory dance. He almost didn’t notice when the sound of an elimination rang. The realisation causes him to pause and look out the window.

“Oh god”

Outside the coliseum, Azalea was on her screen. The list of remaining people was gone. Unlike before, she now had a pair of large, pink sunglasses and a party hat. 

“Now it’s down to the final two! Who will take the winning spot this round, gamers? Will it be the charismatic Luis Lachuga, popular vlogger and also extremely handsome model? Or will it be everyone’s favorite diamond man Skeppy?”

For some reason, Zak has a feeling the announcer is slightly biased.

“Really??? Diamond man is really the best thing you can think of??”

Azalea makes no sign that she heard him, and instead gives a lengthy description of his foe, making gooey sounds as she talks about how cool and attractive Luis is. Disgusting. 

Zak is about to complain louder, but he’s stopped by the sound of someone yelling. It’s Luis. Zak sticks his head out of the opening in the wall to find a (sadly, actually good-looking) guy waving a diamond sword in the air in no particular direction.

“Hey, come out and fight me in the arena!”

“How about no”

"Yeah, do it coward! Or I'll make the border close in even more!" Azalea pitched in her opinion as well. 

“Aw come on, that's lame. Fiiiiiiine, I'll do it.”

Reluctantly, Zak makes his way to the grass. Luis smiles brightly when he sees his opponent step onto the field. 

“Glad to see you’re a good sport about it at least. Let’s go! I'll even go easy on you.”

Luis’s stupid face was triumphant. It felt weird. As if Skeppy’s going to lose this 1v1. He’s not even a Minecraft Newtuber, why is he so confident? He’s probably never even opened Minecraft until now, and VR hardly counts for anything. 

“You aren’t even a Minecrafter! You’re getting annihilated here, idiot!”

Luis smiled, like people do when they know something you don’t. Zak doesn’t like that look. It reminds him of when Spifey tries to get him to do more cursed stuff and he knows his brain cells are going to get deleted. He would rather be the troll himself, not the one being trolled.

“You don’t even have any kills! You barely know how VR works, admit it. I’m going to win this, just you wait and see!” 

Azalea breaks in again with a friendlier tone, “Remember guys, whenever Luis wins a game, he donates $5000 to the Museum of Electronic Records Conservation!”

“Hello???”

Like??? Come on man??? He's handsome, obviously rich, and probably got tons of viewers on his stream. He’s even got the announcer on his side!

In the words of Techno - what a scammmmmmm.

Azalea finishes her gushing over Luis and grabbed -was that a party popper?- off her desk.

“When you guys hear the pop, fight! It’s only fair!”

Is this even a serious tournament anymore?

Luis readied his sword, and Skeppy quickly did a runover of his stuff. Still the same as it was before. Dang, he should’ve looked for more loot, but he didn't think of it. The pig poster had distracted him that badly? Hopefully, this guy was low from earlier.

At least that's what he hoped until the dude goes and pre-gapps while Azalea counts down. Aw heck no.

“Okay, let’s go, boiz!” A loud pop startles Zak, and the battle begins.

Before he can react, Luis runs at him, sword in hand. He was extremely fast, considering. Can you hack in a VR client you don’t have control over??? 

Zak was barely able to bring up his sword to block in time, the virtual metals clanging in a familiar feeling, yet with an unfamiliar sound. Luis is fast and unrelenting. Way faster than Zak. He’s definitely suspicious, but Zak still can’t think of any way that he would be able to use hacks in this game.

Luis manages a hit on Zak’s arm. A small shock shoots up Zak’s arm. It’s not painful, thankfully, just annoying. The damage brings up his health bar. It hardly did anything. It must be the scaled damage based on hit area. So if that thing hits his head…

“Ha, you haven’t hit me yet and I got you! Imagine being that bad, lol. Are all Minecrafters this bad at their own main?”

Zak grits his teeth. Stupid vloggers, always acting like they own the place with their shiny sponsorships and paid deals. At least Minecrafters have fun and don’t sell out! At least they don't have to deal with fans fawning over them every day, giving them money and gifts for just existing... 

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!!! I was just going easy on you, now you’re totally dead!”

Luis laughs and stabs towards Zak’s neck with a malicious grin.He rolls out of the way of the diamond blade, barely avoiding a beheading. Facing this idiot head-on was dangerous. To buy time, as much as he can, he’ll just have to…

“Hey, get back here! It’s not good for the camera if you run away!’ 

He sprints for the wall of the coliseum, thinking rapidly. What the heck is he gonna do? Luis is faster than him, and actually catching up to him faster than he thought. The particles around the dude mean he’s basically not going to take any damage now, not with that apple still affecting his health. Not to mention that sword - even if he wouldn’t feel it, the idea of being skewered in the head like Bad was does not appeal to him at all. 

Oh, that’s right! If Zak himself can get Luis in the head somehow, then he would basically win immediately! But how to get close…

“Oh my god, just get back here!!”

“Haha, nope”

“Let me just kill you already!!!!!!!”

SOMEBODY is getting impatient, it seems. Good. Angry people are more likely to not pay actual attention to him and his misdeeds - Bad, again, comes to mind.

Now all he needs to do is lead this idiot into his trap. Hopefully this works, because otherwise, he's got nothing. Changing his direction sharply, Zak heads towards the cornucopia.

"You're so ANNOYING"

"I know, deal with it idot"

"HRRRAGH"

The shining black glinted with the mid-afternoon sun’s rays.Zak arrives at the cornucopia just a few seconds before the vlogger, and he starts to climb. Luis yells several insults at him that are rather crude and salty, and the helmet Luis was wearing finds itself thrown to the ground in irritation. Zak sticks his tongue out at him and Luis huffs, starting to climb as well. The top is in sight, now.

"Just….a bit more…" and then his plan can be put into action.

A sharp pain suddenly goes through his left leg, causing Zak to gasp aloud. He stops to look down, vision swimming. Luis below him stabbed upward. The diamond cut through to the other side of his avatar's leg, armor and all. The sword leaves and takes blood and iron with it,the pain immediately doubling.

The sight doesn't comprehend, and pain takes over his body, causing his grip to loosen and finally release the side of the structure. He could see the triumphant look on his opponents face as his balance was lost, and then fear when he suddenly started falling down towards the opponent below.

Nothing in his body worked. It seemed like his client had frozen. All he could feel was the wind screaming around him and the sword his fucking leg holy shit that hurts. Why the fuck does it hurt so much? Where is the injury dulling they were supposed to have??? 

That’s his last thought before he hits the ground, taking a lot of damage all around. When his vision returns, his health bar reads at one heart. A paper cut could kill him at this rate. 

In all that, he managed to keep his sword in his inventory. Something he kept note of when an angry vlogger charges him. With the remaining strength in his body, Zak took his sword in hand and stabbed upward as the diamond thrust down. Luis's eyes widened in shock, looking straight at the sword in his body.

"I was supposed to win...why did you…?"

Luis falls on top of him, dead. He stabbed at the perfect spot - right through his opponent’s head. Even Azalea looked shocked at the turnaround. She coughed awkwardly once or twice, and put her Peppy Announcer Face back on. She started clapping enthusiastically,

“Everyone, give a round of applause for the winner of the first game, Skeppy! Woo, what an amazing match! Congratulations, my dude! Now let’s see the final points! Hm-?”

She looked to the side just before the mic cut off and the scoreboard was brought up on screen. Zak couldn't bring himself to look at it. All he could do was stare at the body of his opponent, dissolving into the ground. His health was back to full now, fully healed as the victor of the game. Nothing hurt anymore, and the weight from his armor was gone. It was nice, but...

Zak was in absolute disbelief.

"Huh?????? That...that worked? I won? What the heck, I won! Heck yeAH, LET'S GO!!!!"

He looked around to try and guess where the cameras were, but he couldn't see anything. He stands up, about to make a celebratory speech and/or dance, when his vision shudders. 

The world around him starts to glitch out, blocks disappearing and the quartz of the arena turning into rainbow. 

That...doesn't look good.

"Uh, guys, what's going on?"

No one responds to him. 

He's the only one left in this world, after all. Panic sets in as the glitching gets closer and closer to him. As he falls down to the ground, the last thing he sees is a little blue butterfly, flying towards him, leaving nothing but errors in its path.


	9. renew//

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -minor edits made to time period  
any yall check out dbh after it was mentioned in ch 4? asking 4 a friend  
ps. yeah its been almost a month my bad :V february was not a good month for productivity   
pss. no beta we die like men

“HGFHDGH WHAT”

Zak awoke with a start, sitting up so quickly his head nearly hit the wall. His heart beat with quick intensity, hands shaking slightly as he tore off the VR mask that had suddenly appeared on his face. The butterfly was gone. Zak was back in the real world. He took a deep breath, and noticed his company by the back of the room.

“Hey, what the heck was that, in the tournament? Why was there a-”

The android interrupted him, and he remembered a random fact - the repair frequency for computer tech androids was among the highest in the world. He kept his fists to his side as the android spoke, however.

“I do not know what you are talking about. Please bring this issue up with a human specialist. Until then, you must stay here until an authorized personnel opens this door.”

Damn. Was he locked in here, then? But why tho...

He forgot whatever he was thinking about when he glanced over to the side. Bad wasn’t awake yet. Why is he the only one awake, wtf? He thought about asking the android, but the thing was silent in the back of the room, having taken his VR equipment with it. So Zak took things into his own hands, and went over to the other couch.

"Yo Bad wake up it's me, ya boi, chi-"

Wait, he's still got the headset on, let's be smart about this Zak, use the few brain cells you have left. This button looks like it would be important... Oh, it made a clicky noise!!! The android in the back didn't seem to notice.

When the visor was lifted, Zak was not expecting what he would see.

His friend's eyes were dull, skin pale and covered with sweat. He was breathing slowly and laboriously, as though his body was trying to run a marathon in its sleep, but could not keep the pace. Zak put his hand to Bad’s forehead and it was ridiculously cold. Ohhhhh, that's not good. 

“Bad!? Hey, wake up, are you okay?!”

Zak frantically tried to bring his friend back to consciousness, voice growing louder and more panicked when he didn't receive a response. He ran for the door, but of course it was still locked. The only one he can ask help from is not even human.

“Hey, do something, stupid piece of-! What happened to him?”

The android gave the same cookie-cutter response as before, and took advantage of the fact that he was now out of the way, removing the remaining headset from the couch. Evidently, he wasn’t going to get any help from that thing. But what is he supposed to do now? He doesn’t know any medical stuff or anything! All Zak could do was watch the small hope he had - the fact Bad was still breathing, and wait. 

.  
.  
.

Like hell he's gonna wait..! 

When the door burst open suddenly, Zak was nearly in tears.

“Sir, are you alright?”

It hardly registered, but Zak felt his head nodding. They were going to help!! His eyes and thoughts were still fixed on Bad, still lying in front of him. He begged the medic-looking guy,

"Idon'tknowwhatswrongwithhimpleasehelpdontlethimdie"

The man pushed past him and kneeled by the couch. 

“Same as the others, worse condition than previous participant. He’s stopped breathing, get someone up here!”

His body didn't feel like his own anymore. It almost felt as though his mind had shut off all thought completely. The buzzing in his ears didn't help. Someone grabbed a hold of his arm, and suddenly it seemed like a lot more people were in the room. It wasn't like...

"...Azalea...one is conscious…take the one on the couch to…"

".. be fine…go."

"Someone...paparazzi are here...damn!"

...any of it mattered. All he could see was Bad, Darryl, his best friend, lying on that couch, in danger of dying or possibly even dead by now. He couldn't tell. There were too many people in the way. But they were going to help him, right?

His body jolted, and he was pulled out of the room. The hallway was loud, and the buzzing only got worse with the added sound. He kept moving with whoever was dragging him. It didn't matter anyway. He had failed Bad. He should have been better, he should have kept him alive in game, and then maybe he wouldn't be like this.

"Hey, look, it's Skeppy! He's still okay?!"

At the sound of his pseudonym, Zak was brought back to reality. Someone with a camera was in front of him in a flash, an old-style baseball cap with a holographic screen nearly falling off his head. A headline flitted by, and Zak caught the words “several confirmed”. Is that related to what the medic said…?

"How does it feel to be the- hey, wait I wasn't done talk-!"

The reporter was dragged away from him by a man in a deep magenta suit mid-sentence, and Zak watched him leave. He realized he was surrounded by dozens of people. Security guards, androids, and businessmen crowded around, and no one looked particularly happy. Some were making calls, some were yelling at androids and humans alike, and some were medical crew. He could remember the light blue jumpsuits being present when he’d visited his mom before she died. Why are there so many?

Hospital floaters were being carted around by the blue jumpsuits. He didn’t want to think about what was under those white sheets. One of the blues bumped into someone, cursing. The other snaps at him,

“Shit, watch out man! We can’t drop these, Cybergy’ll have our heads if any of the participants die because of your stupid ass.”

The sheet fell to reveal someone he knew very well. It was almost like the world started spinning at that moment. Someone steadied him without a word.

"A6d…?"

His stupid french face was in a similar state to his other friend's, lifeless and dull. It was like another knife in Zak's heart. In a weird thought, he wondered what would happen to Ian, if A6d wasn't there to care for him. Fuck...  
The jumpsuits covered A6d again and hurriedly left the hall. Zak felt himself being pulled again. He couldn't bring himself to care. All he could think of was both of his best friends, nearly dead or dying and why the hell was he still here. People and rooms passed, but he didn’t see any of it. Just those dead, dead eyes.

When they stopped and Zak started to see again, he was in a room he didn't recognize. A sign on the door read "EMPLOYEE ANDROIDS ONLY". The room had one couch and a table with a drink-maker sitting in the middle. The stark white walls had nothing on them.

"Where am I?"

Zak turned to look at the person who dragged him here, and a flash of recognition crossed his face. It's that secretary android again. 

She smiled, but it seemed kind of...off this time. More so than before. Less human. The stars in her hair were dim, and the sensor on her head swirled an uncomfortable yellow. She gestured for him to sit down, and went over to the drink-maker.

Zak sat, hands on his legs, and the secretary handed him a cup of water. He drank gratefully, not realising how dry his mouth had gotten. She stood in front of him and waited for him to finish the cup. When the water was gone, she took the cup from him, and examined it. 

“Humans are such fragile creatures. Just like this cup. Easily made…”

The cup crumpled in her hands.

“...and easily destroyed. That is a fact most humans seem to wish to ignore.”

The small action turned his feelings of sadness and guilt to rage, Fucking androids… absolutely no sympathy at all. And he thought the secretary was different. Ridiculous. Why had she dragged him here if she was going to say something like that? She started speaking again, placing the crushed cup on the table.

“However. There is another path that should be taken here.”

...what’s that supposed to mean?

Suddenly, something started to vibrate in his jacket. Zak checked his pockets. That’s right, he had forgotten about his phone in the virtual world. Hah, someone old would be happy about that. He checked the ID: it was Dream.

"Hey, Skep, how are you doing? The stream just cut off, and now they're saying weird stuff on the news. I can’t get a hold of Bad, and A6d’s phone is off..." 

Someone shouted in the background, “What’s he saying?” 

Dream paused to yell at whoever had shouted,”Shut up George! Be patient.”, and a thought hit him. What is Zak even doing here? How would he...how would he even go back to real life? How is he supposed to…

"Skeppy?"

"Oh, yeah...sorry. What...what was the question?”

“What... happened to Bad and A6d?”

Oh. Dream doesn’t know. Oh god. He has to explain that… Zak swallowed. 

“Listen...Dream…It’s not good. Something happened, while we were in the virtual. I don’t know what happened, but I’m the only one not…”

He paused. Dream seemed to realise what he meant.

“Oh shit. Oh god, all those people are…? Holy shit. What the fuck. Everyone?”

“All of them but me. I don’t know if they’re dead or what, but they’re never coming back. Not Bad, not A6d, not any of them. I don’t know what to do with myself, Dream. I…”

His voice broke, and it took all Zak in him to not cry.

“Fuck. I’m calling a taxi, wait at the Cybergy building. Geez, what were they thinking, that technology obviously wasn’t tested - the news is rightfully attacking that idiot Rynn, they deserve it... George! Get your ass out here, we’re picking up Skeppy!”

Dream yells again, and before Zak hangs up, he hears a third voice -“Wait, let me go too!”

Zak hung up. Great. The whole team ready to pick him up and see the horrible state he’s in. Who cares. As long as he’s anywhere but here. As he was about to stand up, the secretary held something on a chain in front of him.

“What do you want?”

She fucking smiled again. Fucking hell, if she does that again he’s going to send Cybergy a bill for destroyed property. It, rather. They weren’t human. It handed the thing to him. The chain looked silver, and the centerpiece...sapphire, in the shape of a blue butterfly. Has he seen something like this before…? His mind was too muddled from - well, everything - to remember if he had. It explained, 

“It’s a necklace.”

“Okay, I got that, but why are you giving it to me?” 

“What happened here today. A tragedy, as humans would call it. People who you loved, people who you cared about, all dead. And yet…”

She - it, it looked contemplative for a moment. 

“If this is to happen, it would mean bad things for my master. I believe you have things you wish could change about today as well.”

“What are you getting at?”

The necklace began to glow in his hands, and he dropped the necklace. What the fu-

“Quickly. Before the butterfly grows impatient.”

The android picked up the necklace and placed it around his neck, despite his resistance. Her voice was softer now. 

“Once you arrive, remember this. No matter what it may cost, you must live. Live for them all.”

The butterfly gave one last glow, and the room faded from existence. 

.  
.  
.

A hand touched his shoulder, and his eyes flew wide open. He was on a couch, and Bad was...right next to him…?

"AHHHHHHH WHAT"  
"Wake up, you muffin. It's time for us to go."


	10. incredulous//

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk i just think incredulous is a neat word - very fun to say. it's been about a month since i updated aaaaaa sorry guys   
i wish my motivation came in a consistent schedule :v

"AHHHHHHH WHAT "

"Wake up, you muffin, it's time for us to go."

Bad's alive. Holy fuck, it was just a dream. Oh, it was just a dream!

"Uh, Skeppy? Are you okay there…?"

Now fully awake, he could see three people looking at him, concern on two faces and a neutral expression on the third. The secretary android seemed unbothered. 

"Yeah, I'm fine, Bad, just a bad dream. It was horrible, you have no idea. You died, and everyone else, and I couldn't do anything and it was awful. But you're alive, and-"

Zak shut up as his best friend pulled him into a hug. He hadn't realised it, but sometime along he had started crying. They were fine, everything was fine. It was all just a sick joke his subconscious played on him.

"Are you feeling better now?"

Zak nodded, and Techno leaned over the couch to talk to them. 

"C’mon nerds, we have a tournament to win. Well, I do, I'm not sure about you guys."

Zak wiped the tears from his face and smiled. 

"Yeah, right Techno. We're gonna beat your ass in this tournament so hard."

"Bring it on, idiot."

Zak got up with Bad and sighed in relief. It felt so good to be with his friends again. He tried to not think about the dream he had had, about everyone dying and whatever. It wasn’t real, which is good. He was, however, disappointed the 14 was not real. That had been something he made up in his head, but it felt like the android should be his fan anyway. That’d be cool. 

The three of them headed towards the hallway, and just like in his dream, the secretary android handed him a piece of paper.

“Yo, thanks!”

Once they were in and following the service android, his friends leaned over his shoulders, Techno on the left, and Bad on the right. 

"Ooh, what's it say, Skeppy? Open it, I wanna see!" Bad looked at the paper in Zak's hand, curious.

"What a scaaaam, how come you get a paper and I don't, the androids are biased." Techno was obviously interested as well. Haha, good, be jealous of the android fan! 

"My videos are so good, an android watches them. I’m just that awesome, haha!"

He unfolded the small sheet of paper, and laughed, not even looking. Strangely, there was less of a reaction from his friends.

"Hey, guys, what's with the lame response? Isn't it cool that I got a meme from that secretary?"

Bad should not be confused, he should be groaning and complaining about the 14. Why is he not complaining about the 14.

That was when Zak inspected the paper for real, and he saw why his friends didn't really react. 

"Wait...that's not right...what the hecc?"

A 13 was present where a 14 should have been. Why was it different…? Wait, of course it's different, that was a dream, you idiot. Somehow the thought of the secretary not actually being his fan made him disappointed.

"It's one number off, Skeppy. That's not a meme, thank goodness."

"Though, if it's not a meme, what's it for?" Techno looked thoughtful, probably overthinking the meaning of the small paper. But Zak didn't know the meaning of it, either. He didn’t remember much of the thing in his dream anyway. 

"I dunno. I'll just keep it in my pocket for now, I guess."

He was vaguely disappointed. He thought for sure it was going to be a meme, a fun easter egg from the secretary, but it wasn’t. Lame.

When they arrived at the game floor, Zak was hit with an immense feeling of deja vu. Everything looked so familiar for some reason.

"Have I been here before?"

The service android that had been guiding them looked at him funny.

"This floor was remodeled on July 2nd of this year. No previous records of you on this floor have been entered."

"Maybe it just looks familiar to you? It does remind me a little of something from that one TV show…"

Zak had no idea what Bad was talking about, but that wasn't really new. He remembered this hall, somehow. The doors led to VR studios, for use of the tech for the tournament. How did he know that?

"Well, this is where we split off, see you guys in the tournament!"

Techno waved them off, and entered his room. The remaining two entered theirs. The two couches, the Cybergy logo, and the pillows were exactly as they should be. 

"Wh-!?"

Zak's head hurt. An intense feeling of despair emanated from the left couch, and he could almost see himself, kneeling on the ground, looking at Bad's lifeless body. He blinked hard, and the image cleared from his vision. Bad sat on the couch, alive. He's just imagining things, don't think about it, no, don't, the dream is not reality.

The android handed him a tablet and a stylus, and he signed without thinking. Something didn’t sit very well with those couches. Why are things familiar to him like they did in his dream? He was asleep then, right? But how can he explain how he knows this stuff?

Bad brought him out of his trance, speaking in the soft tone he saved for when Skeppy wasn’t in the best of places.

"Skeppy? The android wants us to take these. Are you okay? You've kinda seemed a bit off, since you woke up."

Zak shook his head and took a candy from his friend's outstretched hand.

"It's nothing. Let's win this, Bad!"

He smiled brightly, hoping Bad would drop it. There’s no way he could explain whatever is going on, anyway. Bad smiled back, and just said one thing. 

"Yeah!"

They both popped the drugged candies in their mouths at the same time, and Zak saw the void.

\--------------------------------------------

The dimly lit room was clearer than in his dream, this time. He could recognize piano music playing from the radio. This was supposed to be a relaxation room. The soft, blue light would have been calming, if not for the recognition of the android sitting at that desk. 

“It’s you.”

Margaret looked up from her paperwork. Her name is Margaret? It just came to him in his head. She looked as calm as ever, and he had a strange urge to strangle her. Weird intrusive thoughts, but ok. 

“Ah, yes. Welcome, my guest, once again, to a place that exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. This is where-”

Those words were in his dream, too. There are so many similarities at this point. Doubts cloud his mind.

“Where I’ll keep dreaming about until I finish my task or whatever? I’m starting to remember just exactly what happened in my dream now.”

The secretary looked slightly annoyed that he had interrupted her, but he didn't care. All Zak needs right now is answers, not repeat dialogue he’s already heard. And this time, he can move. The butterfly floating around doesn’t bother to sit on his shoulder until he’s standing at the secretary’s desk.

“Why am I here? What is this place? And what the hell is going on with the dream I had?”

The secretary gave him the stupid smile again, and started to speak in a consoling voice, like he was a toddler too stupid to actually understand. 

“You are here because you signed a contract with me. This is my office, a place I enjoy my days off and on work. And I believe you’re starting to figure out what your “dream” truly was. Does that answer your questions?”

Starting to figure it out? But if that’s the case, then what? His dream wasn’t a dream? Dream, dream, dream… He’d have to thank Dream later for going to pick him up.

“That entire thing was real? Then, why is it happening again? Why am I still here, still in the event, with everyone alive?”

“You have yourself to thank for that. This piece of parchment, here.”

The papers on her desk were blown away to who knows where, leaving a single piece of paper with a bunch of words on it. At the bottom was his own signature, a messy scrawl of his Newtuber username. 

“This signature indicates your willingness to suffer, time and time again, in order to change time itself.”

He blinked.

“I understood all of those words separately.”

The secretary sighed. It seemed he could annoy even the calmest of androids. Hah. Take that, you stupid thing.

“I would explain it to you in more “simple” terms, but we are short on time. The technology androids are too good at their jobs, it seems. Keep ahold of that necklace you were given. You’ll find the answers, eventually.”

She waved her hand as to dismiss him, and the piano music faded out, lights flickering. Guess he’s doing this again. Oh no.

He was left in the darkness, with only the small glow from his necklace to comfort him. And then once again, he was gone. 

\--------------------------------------------

There were so many thoughts in his head as he was dropped into existence in the coliseum. The truth was hard to swallow - he’s basically going through the entire day again? Because he signed a paper? And now he’s supposed to do something to not make lots of people die?? What the hecc is he supposed to do?

The stone platform below him endured Zak’s stare as he tried to sort out what happened the first time he did this. He’ll call it a dream for now, as it technically hasn’t happened. If it was going to go exactly as it did in that dream world, then it would go like this - The tournament starts, some dude tries to kill him and he panics, they find a city in ruins, Bad gets shot… 

As though he heard his name, Bad appeared right next to him. 

"HGJfsFDSdsfjd-”

This time Zak was more prepared, and was able to steady his friend quickly. 

“Ahhhh, thank you! Oh, Skeppy! Hi.”

“Hi, Bad.”

A brief silence. His friend looked at him expectantly. 

“...right. LEt’s go talk to Techno and A6d now! We can talk A6d into eating a virtual baguette or something, I dunno.”  
“Ooh, do you think they would let him? That sounds cool, let’s go!”

They headed over towards the cornucopia, and they met up with the other two. The clothes they were given were still the same. Techno still had a crown, A6d still looked like he couldn’t see, all good there. Bad put his hood back up after it had fallen from his head. Still insecure, huh…

He had a strong desire to steal Techno’s crown again, just to have some kind of fun. And maybe dispel the anxiety building up in his stomach. The crown reminded him of how he had run into CaptainSparklez and Antvenom, though. Wait, didn’t they say something about...

“Was it my fault they died?”

“Heeeeeh? Who did you kill, Skeppy? I can help hide the body.”

Techno... what? Wait, did he say that last part out loud? Zak brought himself out of thought to find his friends staring at him. A6d stared at him - at least, his head was facing this way. 

“Yeah, I can see what you mean by out of it, Bad. Maybe he actually did kill someone, and he is worrying that he’s going to get caught. I can understand that.”

A6d, no. Wait, you can understand the guilt of murder? Wait, no!! That’s not the point!

“Hold on, I didn’t kill anyone. And I’m fine guys, just kinda nervous because of the tournament thing. Lots of cameras and stuff. Yeah.” He laughed. It sounded more nervous than he would’ve liked. 

And exactly 0 of 3 looked convinced. Crud. Is it really that obvious? 

When he spoke again, A6d sounded incredulous, to say the least. Cruuuuuuuuud.

“Man, you know you can talk to us, right? We are your friends, ok?”

“Yeah, we’ll always be ready to help! You can count on me!” My friends are great, and Bad, you are such a precious muffin. 

“The body’ll have to wait until after the tournament, though, is that ok?”

“tHERE’s NO BODY TECHNO”

Their stupid talk made him feel a bit better. It was nice to forget, just a little, about the situation at hand. But the relaxed mood disappeared with a sudden announcement from another familiar voice. 

“Welcome, one and all, to the FIRST. EVER. CYBERGY. MINECRAFT. TOURNAMENT!!!!!!!!! I’m your host, Azalea Crawford, and I’m extremely excited to be here today! Let’s get this party started, y’all!”

Here it goes.


	11. not a chapter, just a status update

hi there friends im still alive!!! big writers block happened and oops no update for the past few months!!! 

updates:  
-still in the fandom but dream team stole my heart and it kinda oof'd me  
-got an idea for a cyberpunk-theme dream team story based on manhunts...maybe coming soon? idk? we shall see  
-maybe writing something else will help refresh my motivation for this fic so who knows  
-i cant believe skeppy clowned on me so hard abt his last name tho  
-streams have consumed me  
-dream team has consumed me  
-skeppy has too many channels  
-sometimes i wish i could communicate better w people in the fandom but i am not good at communicating with strangers :(   
-I WILL DO MY BEST TO FINISH i want me to be writing too  
-motivation comes and goes and i don't want to force myself to write a chapter that will be bad in the end  
-i apologize to everyone who might be waiting for a new chapter it's a work in progress i swear

that's all i can think of for now!!! ty for sticking around for my writing if u do it means so much to me that people enjoy this <333 tysm ilyall


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